The woman shook her head. She lowered Gen's hand. As she did, she closed the space between their bodies. She bent Gen's arm behind her back so she was fully against Lyda's body, her breasts against hers, Lyda's foot between hers, her thigh insinuating itself between Gen's legs.
Lyda brushed her mouth with her own, a teasing stroke, then another. Gen channeled tension into hunger. She clashed against Lyda's mouth, kissing her hard, her tongue finding the other woman's, dancing with it, tasting, stroking. She bit Lyda's lip and held on, not breaking skin, but trying to convey...something. Lyda let go of her wrist and circled her waist instead, pressing her leg up fully between Gen's legs, cradling one buttock in her hand, digging her nails into Gen's ass as Gen rubbed her pussy against the toned muscle there. With Lyda's arm around her waist, the only place Gen had to put her own was around Lyda's shoulders. She curled her fingers against bare skin, the pulse in her neck, her collarbone.
Lyda took over the kiss, demanding even more from Gen. When the Mistress finally broke it, seizing Gen's hair to pull her back, Gen had her full weight against her leg and Lyda was leaning back against the sink, holding them both there.
"How do you feel, right now, Gen?" It was a harsh demand, Lyda's eyes like flint.
"I'm... I can't think."
"I didn't fucking ask for your head. How do you feel?"
"Right. Exactly right." Gen stared into the woman's face, shocked by the truth of it.
"Yes. This isn't about equality, Gen. It's about what each of us needs, and whether we can provide that for one another. I'm not taking over your checkbook, making you clean my house or ordering you to kiss the bottom of my foot, but there is a vital part of you that needs my control."
Gen pushed away, trying to order her whirling thoughts. "How do I know it's not like the doormat thing? What's the difference? And please don't say I should know."
"But you do." Lyda eyed her. "It's something Marguerite has always seen in you, and why the two of you get along so well, right? It's a different form of what you feel with me, only with her it's more purely service-oriented."
It wasn't the first time Lyda had implied it, but this time Gen saw it clearly enough it came with another minor shock wave.
"Equality is a political idea, Gen," Lyda said. "It has nothing to do with how people care about one another, or what they each need. There is no equality between parent and child, but when it's what it should be, there's no stronger love in the world, right? In times when there was zero equality between men and women, we still have love stories handed down that have become the stuff of legend."
"Where does Noah fit into that?"
"What you felt, when I kissed you? What did you call it?"
"Right," Gen said. "Exactly right."
Lyda's lips curved in one of her knife-blade smiles. "Good description, rabbit. I wanted to put you down right here. Slide my fingers inside your cunt and ass and watch you come apart."
Gen wished she was back within her armspan. If she was, Lyda likely would have done just that. But then that direct gaze became far less friendly. "Why do you turn to Noah when you feel uncertain with me? Do you think he can protect you?"
Gen stepped back at the menace in Lyda's tone. Lyda advanced, taking that ground. "I will tear right through his ass to get to you. It's obvious you had a husband you expected to have enough balls to be in control, and enough of a heart and soul to care about you. But he was weak, selfish, and let you down. I may be selfish at times, but I'm not weak, Gen. Whatever I promise you, I'll deliver. You have to give up control to get where you want to go with this, even though it terrifies you, what I'll do with it."
It did. "Husbands. Two of them."
Lyda blinked, her mouth softening perceptibly. "Oh, Gen."
Gen shook her head. "I don't know if this is a relationship."
"Pull your head out of your ass and figure it out," Lyda said shortly, that lenient moment gone as fast as it had appeared. "Because I'm not going to waste my time telling you things you're not going to believe."
"There are no pictures at your house, not family or friends. But the way you looked at Noah when he was sleeping... I know he matters to you. I think maybe I matter too." Gen took a breath. "I see things in the way you act toward me, different from what I've ever known. And I want even more of whatever it is. It scares me."
Maybe it seemed ridiculous, given how short a timeframe it had been with Noah and Lyda, but with the Dom/sub stuff, things felt as intense and deep as a six-month dating relationship, where these questions would start to be asked.
"Are you getting something you want out of this relationship?" Lyda asked, her face that cool mask.
"Yes."
"Then what the hell does it matter, how I feel? You were quick enough to turn to Noah the other night, rather than both of us. I touched your back and you flinched. Shrank toward him. He was all you wanted."
Gen stared at her as Lyda turned away, found a brush in her bag and began to work on her hair.
She was right. At the time, Gen had focused only on visceral reactions, but Noah had recognized it. He'd even tried to mitigate the damage, but Lyda had shut him down so quickly, charging him to care for Gen.
She'd hurt Lyda's feelings. Plain and simple. Gen had been gripped by that odd sadness, assuming Lyda didn't want to do aftercare, but she hadn't given her a chance to prove otherwise. Maybe the Dom needed the intimacy that aftercare provided as much as the sub. But she'd only let Lyda in for the sex part.